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[0:00] Deuteronomy chapter 4, Deuteronomy chapter 4, verses 25 through 40 will be our text this evening. If you remember, as we are...

[0:11] Good sound effects. I really, really like those sound effects. Total sidetrack, I'm so sorry. Squirrel, I told you all Sunday I get easily distracted, right?

[0:24] So there you go, but my brother Philip, please, may I pray for Ms. Faye. Lane, Brother Philip Lane, I'll be preaching his funeral Friday evening.

[0:35] The last associational meeting I went to, he told those guys, he said, I don't know, I think I might have told you, he said, I don't know what kind of sound effect guy Brother Billy Joe has, but as soon as he said the name Noah last Sunday, it started thundering outside.

[0:48] And I just gave all the credit to the guys upstairs, told them they do an awesome job up there and really add to the sermon. So every time I hear that when I'm preaching, it just makes me think of it.

[0:58] But as we make our way here on Wednesday night and Sunday nights, we're just making our way through Scripture, we are at the book of Deuteronomy. Very transitional book, but a very important book.

[1:11] Deuteronomy puts everything else that precedes it together. It puts really closing remarks. It's the final chapter. It's the conclusion of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible.

[1:22] It is unique in its setting in that this is a sermon that Moses delivered to the people right before they went into the promised land, right? This is Moses' final words.

[1:32] A lot of things throughout history and a lot of things through studying people throughout time has been what were they thinking about or what were they talking about? What were their final words? And one of the greatest passages that we find in the New Testament, at least in my opinion, are those passages in John 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17, which are the final sayings of Christ.

[1:53] It's unique in its setting there in the New Testament because it's Jesus going to the Last Supper, and it's what he said all the way up to the high priestly prayer in John 17. It is one long discourse right before his betrayal.

[2:07] And if we want to know what Jesus thought was important right before he went to the cross, we can open that up. If you want to know what God wanted to tell his people right before Moses died, right before Moses ascends Mount Pisgah, looks over the promised land, and is buried by God who knows where.

[2:23] No one knows where. Right before they go in to take possession of the promised land, this very land God had promised Abraham some 400 plus years prior to this, this very location that God had called them out of Egypt.

[2:38] Remember that theme in the book of Exodus? He brought them out in order to take them in, right? He set them free in order to bring them in. And that's this great theme. God doesn't deliver us just so we can be free.

[2:50] He always sets us free from slavery so that he can bring us into his presence. And that's just a great theme that we see resounding in the book of Exodus. God brought them out. We'll see it resound through the book of Deuteronomy.

[3:02] So they're getting ready to go into this place. This is where God's people are supposed to be. And this is the teaching he wants them to hear. This is the preparation.

[3:14] And Moses is expounding the law, as it says in Deuteronomy chapter 1. He is making clear the law of God. Now, that's important for us because I don't know about you, but when I read the book of Leviticus in particular, in all of the works of the law in general, but especially when I open up the book of Leviticus, and I'm there and I'm reading all these, don't do this, do this, be sure not to do this, be sure to do this.

[3:40] And I get kind of confused because it doesn't seem real clear to us. We're not in that time and space. And here, Moses is going to make it clear. He's going to expound it. He's going to open it up. And we have seen how chapter 4 is the hinge on which this whole sermon swings.

[3:59] That which preceded it, that is Deuteronomy 1, 2, and 3, are his introductory remarks. He looks back at their past. What's unique? I know I'm giving you a lot of information, but it bears repeating, right?

[4:12] What's unique with the book of Deuteronomy is he doesn't look back to Egypt. He looks back to where? Mount Sinai. Right? He looks back to their encounter with God because that which defines them is no longer their slavery.

[4:24] That which defines them is no longer bondage. That which defines them is their relationship they have with the Lord their God. That's important. Because, friend, just listen to me. In your life, when you're making transitions and you're going through difficult seasons, Satan wants you to look all the way back to enslavement, and God's calling you to look back to a relationship.

[4:40] So when Moses looks back at the past, he goes back to Mount Sinai. He doesn't go back to Egypt because they're no longer slaves. They're free people, right? So he goes back to Mount Sinai, that covenant place, that relationship that they have with the Lord their God, and everything swings on that.

[4:56] As we'll see in just a moment. And so now he is beginning to lead up. So chapter 4 is kind of the thing that throws the door wide open because Deuteronomy chapter 5 is the second telling of the law.

[5:09] That's where the word deutero comes from, second telling. It literally means second law. It is not the second law, but it is the second telling of the Ten Commandments, and that's in Deuteronomy chapter 5.

[5:21] So in Deuteronomy chapter 5, he will say it again, and then he'll take the rest of the book to expound it, what it looks like to be lived out in everyday life. And then at the end of the book, he'll give blessings and curses, right?

[5:34] So if you do these things, this will happen. If you don't do these things, that will happen. So he is here in the process of opening it up. In Deuteronomy 4, let's start in verse 25, and we'll read down to verse 40.

[5:44] And I know that was a lot of information just to throw at you. Hopefully some of it sticks on the wall, so to say, and we'll make our way through. So let's see. Deuteronomy chapter 4, starting in verse 25. When you become the father of children and children's children, and have remained long in the land, and act corruptly, and make an idol in the form of anything, and do that which is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as to provoke him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that you will surely perish quickly from the land where you are going over the Jordan to possess it.

[6:17] You should not live long on it, but will be utterly destroyed. The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord drives you. There you will serve gods, the work of man's hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell.

[6:33] But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him if you search for him with all your heart and all your soul. When you are in distress, and all these things have come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and listen to his voice.

[6:47] For the Lord your God is a compassionate God. He will not fail you, nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant with your fathers, which he swore to them. Indeed, ask now concerning the former days which were before you since the day that God created man on the earth, and inquire from one end of the heavens to the other, has anything been done like this great thing, or has anything been heard like it?

[7:10] Has any people heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire as you have heard it and survived? Or has a God tried to go in and take for himself a nation from within another nation by trials, by signs and wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

[7:32] To you it has been shown that you might know that the Lord, he is God. There is no other besides him. Out of the heavens he let you hear his voice to discipline you, and on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words from the midst of the fire, because he loved your fathers, therefore he chose their descendants after them, and he personally brought you from Egypt by his great power, driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in and to give you their land for an inheritance as it is today.

[8:04] Know therefore today and take it to heart that the Lord, he is God in heaven above, and on the earth below there is no other. So you shall keep his statutes and his commandments which I am giving you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may live long on the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time.

[8:25] Deuteronomy 4, 25 through 40. I want you to see this evening as we look at this passage, because for the last two weeks we have been looking in particular how they are a set-apart people.

[8:38] They are a set-apart people. Because one of the glories that we find in Deuteronomy chapter 4 is that God called his people out to set them apart so that other nations would see, other nations would be drawn, other nations would observe the fact that they live differently, they act differently, they eat different foods, all these things.

[8:57] God set them apart in order to draw others in. That's the whole purpose, right? God set them apart because God wasn't just picking the people to choose favorites or to play favorites.

[9:07] God was picking a people to manifest himself to the world so that the world could be drawn to the Father. That's the beauty of the nation of Israel. God picked Abram out of the land of the earth, the Chaldeans, and made a great nation out of Abram who would later be called Abraham, and Sarah, his wife, that would be the nation of Israel for the intended purpose of setting them apart so that everyone in the world could say, what's different about them?

[9:34] And everyone in the world could say, I want what they have, and they can answer, what we have is a relationship with the Lord our God. God set them apart. The sin of the nation of Israel throughout the Old Testament is they failed to live set apart.

[9:48] The great sin of the church today is the church fails to live set apart. I have a quote written in one of my Bibles, probably the Bible, I think it's the Bible that I use on Sunday mornings, written by, it was spoke by H.B. Charles, the first time I ever heard H.B. Charles preach.

[10:08] If you've never heard H.B. Charles preach, you need to look up H.B. Charles Jr. He preaches in Jacksonville, Florida. Don't try to figure out what his name is because I did hear him say one time, his legal name is H.B. Charles.

[10:22] His father named him initials, but what's amazing about that, I think he's actually H.B. Charles III. So there are three H.B.s. I don't know how that came about, but his father was a pastor in California and H.B.s ended up down in Jacksonville, Florida, but the brother can preach, okay?

[10:41] But the first time I ever heard him preach, he was kind of a very meek man wearing glasses, perfectly dressed. It was up at Moody Church, if I'm not mistaken.

[10:53] No, it wasn't. It was in Columbus, Ohio. It was a pastor's conference. And he came out, very clear dress, pocket square matching his glasses and his bow tie, just very crisp, clear, and he was very calm.

[11:08] And I like pastors to get excited, and I was a little bit like, come on, brother. Let's get rolling with it, right? He was just standing there. And then he made this quote, he made this phrase, and I wrote it down in my Bible because it's what broke loose the sermon.

[11:21] You'll find, if you ever look him up, he stood behind that pulpit very calmly. He said, reaching over to help the world out, the church has done fell in.

[11:33] And he went on from there. And he's absolutely right. When the church reached out to help the world, the church fell in and began to live like the world instead of being set apart from the world.

[11:48] And this was the sin of the nation of Israel, right? So we see what Moses is saying in Deuteronomy 4 is, you are a set apart people. And before he gives the law, he gives, if you have to have a title tonight, it is a word of warning.

[12:06] It is a word of warning. On the heels of telling them, you are a set apart people to draw other people in, here's a word of warning. Because being set apart comes with, at least, temptations and trials and struggles.

[12:21] And it comes with a little bit more difficulty. And it comes with a little bit more responsibility. And it comes with a little bit more expectation. I told someone recently, we don't get to choose the platform God puts us on to exhibit his greatness.

[12:35] And sometimes the platform he puts us on is not always the most pleasant. But what we can choose is what we do on that platform God puts us on. And it is heeding this word of warning, as he is telling them here.

[12:49] And there are three things I want you to see about this word of warning. Number one, there is the predicted failure. This is the first prophecy of the book of Deuteronomy. Never forget this.

[13:00] Moses was a great teacher. He was a humble man. He was meek. That is, he was gentle. He would dwell in the presence of God.

[13:10] And he would come back with the Shekinah glory of God on his face. He would teach the people. But Moses was also a prophet. Okay. He uttered, he foretold what was going to happen.

[13:23] And he would speak of things yet to be. And we see this in the writings of Moses. But we see it really in particular in the book of Deuteronomy because he gives these dramatic prophecies prophecies, which if we read the rest of the Old Testament, we see they happen just like this.

[13:41] And here's the first prophecy he gives. When you become the father of children and children's children, that is when you become grandparents, when you have remained in the land, remained long in the land.

[13:54] Now, it could be interpreted that first one, when you become the father of children and children's children. Let's just stop right here because we want to be at least accurate to interpretations. It could read literally in English if you become father of children and children's children.

[14:10] But probably the more literal reading and translation of it from the original Hebrew is when. So when these things happen because he follows it with this wording, when you have remained long in the land.

[14:21] So after some time, he gives this prophecy and act corruptly and make an idol in the form of anything. Now, what has he just said prior to this?

[14:31] He has told them that because they were a set-apart people, they should not make idols like the rest of the people living around them. He had told them not to fashion their God that they serve in any form because they don't know what he looks like.

[14:42] They'd heard his voice. They had seen his glory. They had seen his presence. They had seen a manifestation of his presence, but they didn't see an image. Everyone else around them was worshiping an image, a bull or a statue or weaned creatures or stars or moon or all these things.

[14:57] But they weren't to do that because they were unique. If someone was to say, what does your God look like? They were to say, we don't know. And that's okay. And they were to be able to answer that with confidence that we have no idea.

[15:10] We know he's there, but he's bigger than we can imagine. He doesn't look like anything he's created because he's above creation. And they would just have to answer that way. And he said, censor set apart, don't make an idol.

[15:22] But now he gives this prophecy. When you have lived long in the land and you act corruptly and you make idols. And he speaks of a predicted failure.

[15:33] And this is something we find that resonates into the book of Joshua, through the book of Judges.

[15:45] And it's this reality is when the people lived in houses they did not build, they lived in gardens they did not plant, in wells they did not dig, they became complacent. They became complacent.

[15:58] And they began to take it easy. And usually the very first place we relax, let's just be real and let's be honest, the first place we relax is in our relationship with the Lord our God.

[16:14] Because it's the hardest one to maintain. This is why it is so much easier as much as we don't like it, it is so much easier to follow the Lord in the wilderness when everything's going bad than it is to follow him in the promised land when things seem to be going good.

[16:31] This is why. Because he says when you have lived long in the land and you look around and all of a sudden you would like to be more like the people in the land instead of like the people that stand out in the land when you just want to fit in and you just want to look like everybody else and you just want to blend in.

[16:48] He says you're going to make an idol and you're going to have these idols and then he gives this great prophecy he says then I call the heavens and the earth as witness. He says this thing is a settled matter. He says when you do that you will surely perish quickly from the land where you're going over the Jordan to possess it and you shall not live long in it but will be utterly destroyed.

[17:07] What does he say? He says the moment you do that God's going to take you out of the land. Why? Because here is the Abrahamic promise. Abrahamic promises follow me obey me I'll give you the promised land right?

[17:18] The land was in connection with the people's obedience. This is the difference the major difference between the law and the gospel. Okay?

[17:30] God's provisions in the law are always connected to man's obedience to the law and disobedience to the law always removes God's blessings.

[17:41] He says if you cannot obey him he will take you out of the land. And that is the intended purpose that's what God is showing us is that no man can live up to this standard.

[17:52] No man can be this faith point. He says you're going to be taken out of the land and these things come about do you read this? I mean it's almost like reading what happens in Babylonian captivity right? It's almost like reading when the northern kingdom falls and then later on to the Assyrian empire and then the southern kingdom falls to the Babylonian empire.

[18:11] It's exactly that because this is God's man predicting through prophetic forth telling telling forth what God is going to do their failure.

[18:25] He says the Lord will scatter you among the peoples and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord your God drives you. Now stay with me look at this there you will serve God's the work of man's hands wood and stone which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell.

[18:43] Do you want to know what God does when the people fail? Gives them their work. He says when you have lived long in the land and you want to make an idol and worship that idol and look like everybody else God's going to make you blend in with everybody else.

[19:02] He's going to scatter you among the nations. There won't be enough of you to stand out. You will literally blend in and when you're there you'll worship idols. That's their judgment.

[19:15] They get their way. 2 Thessalonians tells us that. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 that God gave them over to a debased mind so as to believe the lie.

[19:29] Romans chapter 1 the Lord gives them over to the desires of their own flesh. James says when anyone is tempted let him not say that he is tempted of God but he is tempted by his own sins and he succumbs to his own sins.

[19:42] He has given over to that which is his. The greatest judgment that God ever gives man is he lets them have their way. He says that's what you want and that's what you will choose because things seem to be going good when you fail to obey him he'll give it to you.

[20:08] And he tells them this is what's going to happen. And it happens just like that by the way because they get in the promised land and it gets easy and they're no longer fighting a battle at least they don't think they're fighting a battle because there's no longer anybody opposing them.

[20:21] Things seem to be going pleasant and as long as there's not opposition there's always opportunity and when you don't have opposition you have opportunity to relax. When you relax you usually succumb and you succumb to disobedience.

[20:37] we see this predicted failure. Number two in this word of warning not only does he speak of their failure he speaks of the possibility of forgiveness because I'm so thankful.

[20:51] If anyone ever tells you and I know I've put this on a number of passages but we can see this throughout this whole time and this is one of the things that if you ever want to get your pastor riled up or anybody else ever wants to get your pastor riled up then if they poke this one you know there's some ways you can poke me and I'll kind of leave you alone and if you poke me here then I tend to get a little riled up.

[21:10] If someone says that the God of the New Testament is loving and the God of the Old Testament is a big mean God I get kind of upset because that's just absolutely not true. There's more said about judgment and hell and eternal condemnation in the New Testament than there is in the Old Testament.

[21:28] That's one thing and Jesus says it there you know he who died for us and there are more passages in the Old Testament that speak of God's loving kindness chesed everything that is for our good and his mercy and his grace and his opportunity.

[21:47] People get fixated on this he will put you out of the land. It doesn't stop there though right? He says he'll put you out of the land. You won't get to live there because of your choices but look at what he says in verse 29 but from there but from there from where?

[22:06] From those places you are scattered and worshiping false gods. From those places of your judgment but from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him if you search for him with all your heart and with all your soul.

[22:24] Here is the reality in the Old Testament God loves his people enough to judge them to cause them to seek him. God loves them enough to bring them to a place of judgment to bring them to a place of corrective action so that when they are going through that judgment they will be compelled to turn and seek after him.

[22:44] They will be compelled to look for him because if God does not judge that if God does not condemn that if God does not cast them out then they in their own natural tendencies will never seek after him and this is something that we see in history and it is something that we read especially in scripture but we even see it in non-scriptural history the reality and I know we have spoke of it before but the nation of Israel went into the Babylonian captivity because these things happened in the Babylonian captivity.

[23:14] It was about a 70 year time of captivity right? We see that in the book of Daniel. We see it happening in the book of Isaiah. All the major prophets there but we see this reality that when they were carried away by King Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuchadnezzar and his chief official and all these things and Jerusalem was ransacked and they carried the upper crust away which was Daniel and those other people right Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and all those other upper crust society and then they came back and they carried more people away and then they came back and they carried more people away because the way Nebuchadnezzar worked is he didn't want the poor people, the dregs of society in his kingdom.

[23:51] He wanted the rich people so they were taking the richer upper class and they were leaving behind the lower class which shows us where Jeremiah falls by the way because Jeremiah stays in Jerusalem. I don't know if you've ever caught that. Jeremiah probably wasn't way up high on the totem pole but a guy who lays naked on his side and eats from dung probably not one of the most well respected men in society.

[24:11] But anyway so he's down there on the bottom and we see that during this time they go into Babylon a very polytheistic idol worshiping God people.

[24:23] They're worshiping multiple gods. Baal, Asherah, they're trying to worship Yahweh too. They're blending all these false sources. They go very polytheistic.

[24:34] That's multiple gods. When they come out of Babylonian captivity 70 years later they are still to this day the most monotheistic people group to ever live.

[24:46] Did you ever catch that? You have Ezra, Nehemiah, a couple other of the minor prophets, major one would be Malachi and then you have the intertestament time and you have the new testament.

[25:00] Did you notice that in none of those books you never read of them worshiping idols again? And you don't even read it in history? You know why? Because God says from there you will seek me.

[25:14] Now did they find him? They didn't find him because they denied the Savior. But that's still part of God's plan. We can look at that when we get to that in scripture. But God's purpose was this judgment is going to be the tool that I use.

[25:29] Read Isaiah. He's always talking about using this judgment as a tool and this nation as a tool to correct this people and this nation as a tool to correct that people. God in his omniscience is using the judgment as the avenue to call people back to himself.

[25:43] Bring that down to application. The discipline that he exhibits in our life that is the corrective action he has to take on his people when we fail him and we will and we do is always for the intended purpose of restoring us back to him.

[25:58] Second time the church is mentioned is Matthew chapter eight. First time it's mentioned Matthew 16. Matthew 16 is a confession of Peter, right? You are the son of God. And upon this rock I will build the church.

[26:10] That's what Jesus says. Matthew 18 is the second time the church is ever mentioned and we don't talk about that one a whole lot because it's church discipline. That's when your brother sins and you go and you talk to your brother about his sin. If he doesn't listen you go and take another brother with you and you talk to him about his sin and if he doesn't listen then the whole church brings the brother before the church and the church confronts the brother with his sin.

[26:31] And if he won't listen then the church puts him out of the church. That's what Paul says. I've handed this one over to Satan. First Corinthians. But what was the reason behind that?

[26:41] So that the church could judge the individual? No. It says that the church is to do that so that that individual's relationship with Christ would be restored. See judgment of God's people.

[26:58] We're not talking about the judgment seat, right? We're talking about the uniqueness of God's people. God's judgment of his people is always for the purpose of restoring them back to relationship with himself.

[27:16] He doesn't want us living life our own way. He says from there you will seek him. But how does this opportunity for forgiveness, this possibility he says when you search for him with your whole heart and with all your soul?

[27:35] He says when you're fully committed, when you're surrendered, when you are in distress and all these things have come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and listen to his voice.

[27:47] That's obedience. You will do what he says. Wow. Look at verse 31. It's so good. It's so comforting. Not just to them. It's comforting to us. Verse 31. For the Lord your God is a compassionate God.

[27:59] If anyone says the God of the Bible of the Old Testament is old, take them to Deuteronomy chapter 4 because verse 24 says he is a consuming fire. Verse 31 says he's a compassionate God.

[28:11] He cares. The Lord your God is a compassionate God. He will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which he swore to them.

[28:23] The possibility of forgiveness rests upon the foundation of the covenant. Right? God had entered into a covenantal relationship.

[28:34] If you obey me then I will be your people. Listen. Let's move out of the Old Testament just for a moment. Let's move to our own lives. How are we certain there's a possibility of forgiveness when we fail?

[28:51] How are we certain of that? I'm not saying if we fail. I'm saying when we fail. Because what the law tells us is none of us are perfect. There are none righteous.

[29:03] No, not one. So how can we be certain that God will forgive us when we fail? Not because he made a covenant with our forefathers.

[29:16] But because we've entered into a covenant with him through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. And he says whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

[29:32] Those who seek will find. As one commentator said Bible scripture teaches us church history teaches us and personal experience teaches us.

[29:50] Those who seek really do find. God does not hide himself from his people. Those who seek really do find.

[30:04] So that's not the Lord our God on our shoulder telling us we went too far. that's our enemy who knows the reality that whoever seeks actually does find.

[30:21] Because our relationship with him is based on a covenant. And our covenant is the covenant of Jesus' blood. It's not the covenant of our Abrahamic promise. There is the possibility of forgiveness.

[30:34] And all of this wraps up in the third thing. And I promise I'll make it quicker because I know I went a little preachy on a Wednesday night, right? The third thing. These things are a direct result of their position of favor.

[30:47] Not only is there to predict failure, not only with that failure there's the at least the possibility of forgiveness if they would seek him with their whole heart, with all their soul.

[30:57] These things are a result of their position of favor. And Moses tells them, he says, just stop for a moment. Look throughout history. Ever since man, look, from one end of the earth to the other, from one end of the heavens to the other, ever since the creation of man, has there ever been such a people?

[31:22] I mean, has there ever been such a people who have heard the voice of the Lord their God, and he says, and lived? You ever known anyone, Moses says, who sat at the base of a mountain and heard the God speak, and could tell about, some other about it?

[31:38] Who could go around talking about, man, that was awesome, right? I mean, did y'all hear that? I mean, he says, has there ever been such a people who have heard God and live? And he says, or has there ever been a God, lower case g, who has ever thought to go get his people from within another nation?

[31:56] With such signs and wonders and display of authority, have you ever heard of another nation losing another nation within it? Because God intervened, I think I might have told you this, history shows us one other time that slaves actually found their liberation while being enslaved, other than the nation of Israel.

[32:17] One other time in which we see slaves who all of a sudden went from slavery to freedom, just like that. And it's in the Haitian revolt in Haiti, because the French were captive of the Haitian island there, they were captive of Haiti, and they had all these sugar cane farms, and they had brought all of these slaves over from Africa, and they were using these slaves to work their sugar cane farms, and they were producing sugar, and the slaves on Haiti decided they'd had enough of that, and they decided that they were going to do this Haitian revolt.

[32:45] So they had this revolt, and they literally liberated themselves and ran all the French out of there, because you know, on this little bitty island there's nowhere to go. And so they decided to get rid of them, and that's where we get our Haitians today, that's, they're still there, the native Haitian people.

[32:59] They were slaves at one time that gained their own freedom. But it wasn't the fact that a God intervened and set them free. He says, consider this.

[33:11] Has there ever been another God who went inside a nation and said, let my people go? And when that nation said no, he said, then I'm going to make you let them go? He said, think about that just for a moment. Look how much favor is being displayed upon your life.

[33:27] He says, to you, to you, it was shown that you might know that the Lord, he is God, there is no other beside him. What is he saying?

[33:38] This position you enjoy, that God has done things that no one else could ever say, he did that so that you would know he is God. Out of the heavens he let you hear his voice to discipline you, so that you couldn't say, I think this is what God wants me to do.

[33:55] It's so that you could say, I know this is what God wants me to do because I heard him say it. And on earth he let you see his great fire and you heard his words from the midst of the fire because he loved your fathers.

[34:07] Therefore he chose their descendants after them and he personally brought you from Egypt by his great power, driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you to bring you in and to give you their land for an inheritance as it is this day.

[34:19] They're in the land of Sihon and Og. Remember that, right? They've already won victories. Know therefore today and take it to heart that the Lord. He is God in heaven above and on earth below and there is no other. So, why would you disobey him?

[34:35] See, the position of favor which they hold was to be the platform in which their obedience was to stand. They didn't have to live in those houses and see those gardens and drink from those wells and watch the walls of Jericho fall down.

[34:48] They didn't have to see God drive out all these other nations because what God had already done was sufficient to validate to them that he is God in heaven above and on earth below and therefore the question of their obedience really is not essential.

[35:08] We say, well, I wonder how the nation of Israel could fail. You know, the great question is we have a greater witness than a burning bush.

[35:18] We have a greater leader than Moses walking through the wilderness. We have a greater deliverance than walking across the Red Sea on dry ground. We've seen greater things than the walls of Jericho fall down.

[35:31] We've been fed greater food than manna that fell out of heaven. We have a greater leader than a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of fire by day because we have the very presence of God within us.

[35:45] So, the question is not how can the nation of Israel fail? The question is how can the people of God today fail? When we consider our favored position, we stand in such a favored position.

[36:08] Francis Chan shares, I think I might have shared this with you before, but it bears repeating again. Francis Chan shared one time in the past that while he was still living in the Simi Valley, California, he was working in his yard one day and some missionaries came by his house.

[36:29] They weren't Christian missionaries. They were, I want to think they were LDS missionaries actually stopped by Francis Chan's house. Just kind of humorous to think about that time because he was pastoring one of the largest churches in California at that present time.

[36:43] But they stopped to talk to this guy who was working in his garden, his flower garden, about their faith. They didn't know who he was and so they started talking with him and Francis says, you know what's amazing?

[36:58] He said, they figured out real quick he's a pastor so they started walking off. Well, he just got on the sidewalk and walked with them. He decided to take a walk with them down to the next house. He told them, he said, you know what the most amazing thing is?

[37:08] He said, I talk to God and he talks to me. He hears me. I ask him something and he gives me a response. I have this relationship with, I don't need.

[37:22] He said, so what can you offer me that's better than that? He said, they got really, really quiet and really, really mad and walked really, really fast. Because see, he was basing his life upon the position of favor.

[37:38] He was already standing in. The reality is, the people of God already stand in a position of favor. I challenge you.

[37:50] Not for the sake of wanting to find out their tenants, but just do a quick perusal of every other faith in the world. See if you can answer what Moses asked.

[38:03] What other God has ever done such to set his people free? The simple answer to that is, none.

[38:17] Not a single one. God has taken on flesh, died our death, paid our price, and then said, now obey me.

[38:32] Not one, but every one of them demand obedience. So why? Why would we ever fail him?

[38:43] There's the word of warning. They predicted failure, the possibility of forgiveness, all because of this position of favor in which they already stand. Deuteronomy chapter 4, verses 25 through 40.

[38:57] Thank you, brothers. Thank you. Thank you.

[39:37] Thank you. Thank you.

[40:36] Thank you. Thank you.

[41:07] Thank you.